Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Texas Chocolate

No, I'm not dead! I've been down in San Antonio speaking for the International Association of Professional Background Screeners. (Thanks, Sassy!!)

But I was thinking of you, Dear Readers! Not only do I have some completely random Texas chocolates to share with you, I visited this great restaurant thanks to my friend Katie Davis who is an Army officer stationed in San Antone. Thanks, Katie!! Both for your service AND for your great ideas!

Billed as a modern French bistro and a chocolate cocktail lounge, anything with this sign HAD to be investigated:

Their website is http://www.sa-coco.com/. Check it out - it's cool. You can even see inside the restaurant with a 360 view.

The hardest thing was deciding what to get! I wanted it all! We started with Coco's Salade Au Chocolat: mixed greens, cherries, toasted nuts, blue cheese, raspberry vinaigrette and white chocolate shavings.

The cool part? The waiter brings a big block of white chocolate over to give you the shavings:

Load it up, I say!!!!

Delicious!!!! It was really, really great. Not too sweet, just fabulous. I wish I had another one right now.

This was an appetizer - crostini, mozzarella, rainbow tomatoes, chocolate balsamic vinegar reduction with sun dried tomatoes, pesto, olives, grilled veggies. We had to get it because of the chocolate - those brown dots are the chocolate reduction. And it was amazing!! Our waiter even brought us more. Think rich dark chocolate perfectly balanced with balsamic vinegar - I'm telling you, it was like dying and going to chocolate heaven.

The hard part was only choosing two desserts. I want to go back because there are so many more on the menu I feel I must try before I die. One involves a single origin Ecuador chocolate mousse dome with creme brulee inside - oh dear God. Check out the online desert menu - it will blow you away.

Looks amazing, doesn't it? And it was good, but it paled in comparison with the other dessert we got:

This is a warm chocolate Nutella tart. Described as "a flaky crust with a hazelnut-nutella ganache served warm with salty caramel crumbles and a side of caramel ice cream". Yay!!

You all know how I feel about Nutella. I can't stop myself from eating it right out of the jar. It is like crack cocaine to chocolate and nut lovers. This dessert was simply amazing. It was even was better than the peanut butter mousse dessert the Sorbet Sistahs loved so much. It may be the best dessert I have ever had.

If the Nutella tart wasn't already good enough, there was a side of caramel ice cream! Do these people know how to live or what??? Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous.

The service was also fantastic - our waiter brought us extra chocolate balsamic vinegar and even a small glass each of chocolate port - free of charge. I didn't think I would like it, but it was damn good!!! I wish I had some more of that right now, too!

An extraordinary dinner - we also split a delicious pizza - and the total was under $50! What a deal!!

Katie told our waiter about this blog and he told the owner - so he came over and talked with us. His passion for food and chocolate was obvious - I'm so thrilled we got to meet him. Among other things, he told us how he got the name for his establishment. His grandmother raised him (he is French, which when it comes to food gives you big points in my book. When it comes to anything else, not so much). And when he was a baby, she would feed him little bits of chocolate. As a result, his first word was "coco." Thus - COCO - chocolate lounge and bistro.

Ah - chocolate is the great unifier! Those who love it can't wait to share it with others who love it! And those who don't love it....well, those people are questionable anyway. Wish you all could have been with me!

5 comments:

Molten Chocolate desserts are one of my faves. We are blessed that our favorite restaurant - where we eat at least once a month - has a decadent dark chocolate molten cake on their permanent menu. Served with homemade gelato...